French publishers create a shared ad-sales platform, take on the Google–Facebook advertising duopoly

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French publishers create a shared ad-sales platform, take on the Google–Facebook advertising duopoly

Group of French news publishers and digital companies announce Gravity, an alliance for joint programmatic ad sales, through which they will share with each other their audiences' data.

Gravity will be a shared platform for programmatic advertising sales, relying on the readers' data that the participating publishers will make available through the platform. The initiative aims to improve ad targeting, allowing for more precise and more expensive ad sales. Through data sharing the publishers hope to take on Google and Facebook, whose strength in online advertising relies on the amount of data they have of their users, Liberation reported (in French).

Publishers participating in Gravity include Les Echos, Le Parisian, Lagardère (magazine publisher), as well as several regional newspaper publishers. Also actors outside the press are participating, such as the telecom SFR, the retail group FNAC DARTY, and digital local communications company SoLocal, Les Echos reported (in French).

Le Figaro has decided not to join the alliance, while Le Monde has not made a decision yet, Les Echos reported.

According to La Revue du Digital (in French), Gravity will combine various types of reader data, including sociodemographic, professional and geo-localised data, as well as information on readers’ interests, purchases and travels.

La Revue du Digital points out that there is a potential risk for Gravity’s success: its functionality depends on using cookies that track readers online, but the upcoming ePrivacy rules would allow users in the EU to refuse tracking cookies systematically.

A test version of the platform will open in September, with the official launch expected in November.

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